Matt O’Riley: What are Celtic losing and Brighton gaining?

O’Riley’s statistics are impressive.

Since arriving at Celtic, he has provided more assists than anyone in the Scottish Premiership, his 29 being six more than Rangers captain James Tavernier.

O’Riley ranks third when combining goals and assists, his 54 involvements only two behind Heart of Midlothian striker Lawrence Shankland and seven adrift of Tavernier, Rangers’ regular penalty taker.

O’Riley (217) is second only to Tavernier (275) and well ahead of the next best, Kilmarnock winger Danny Armstrong (173) in terms of chances created – and only 10 behind the Rangers captain when considering only those from open play.

As for touches in the box, O’Riley outshines any Premiership player, his 555 being more than Shankland’s 498 and well ahead of team-mate Daizen Maeda and recent Girona capture from Aberdeen, Bojan Miovski.

O’Riley is also fourth best for successful crosses behind Tavernier, Armstrong and former Rangers left-back Borna Barisic – and his 25 goals over the past two years is only bettered by four strikers and Tavernier.

Those steadily improving numbers mean O’Riley had possibly now overtaken captain Callum McGregor and Japan’s Reo Hatate in terms of importance to Celtic.

The trio have been central to a scintillating start to this season for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Acknowledging their role last week, the manager said: “In my history as a coach, the dynamic midfield three is always important.

“It’s never about one player, it’s always about the three. And I think that it was probably only into the latter stages of last season that those three came together.

“And I think you’ve seen the flow and the dynamism and how it all makes the team function.”

Rodgers had repeatedly said he did not want to lose “a brilliant player” with “phenomenal mentality”, saying he already needed an extra central midfielder to bolster his squad for the Champions League even if O’Riley stayed.

Soundings from Celtic suggested it would take an offer north of the club’s reported £25m record sales for both Kieran Tierney and Jota to prise O’Riley away.

After McGregor and Hatate both scored in O’Riley’s absence in Sunday’s 3-0 win over St Mirren, Rodgers expressed his frustration at the slow wheels of Celtic recruitment.

However, he vowed that the squad would be improved before the transfer window closed and that speed will only surely hasten armed with the O’Riley money.